John St, Financial District

While much of the area surrounding Wall Street is taken up by the offices of the nation's financial elite, John Street offers more accessible fare in the form of some of the neighborhood's best restaurants and bars - even bankers have to eat, right? - including a branch of the city's Gallic standby Les Halles. While the prices are likely to be high - and the atmospheres designed to be conducive to shmoozing - the restaurants have nearly uniformly high quality and impeccable service to match their swank but serious clientele. Check out the low-key John Street Bar and Grill for some simple cuts of steak served right, hurry through a five-minute lunch break with the tasty salads at Toasties,or get spicy with Maggie's Cajun! While bars, clubs, and music venues are at a minimum here - the entertainment is strictly designed to cater to the lunch hour - the food in this area is a vast step up from the wraps and lunch carts that dominate much of midtown. But what can you expect in a town where the bankers are kings?

Back in the late 1800's New York City was the home to a wide variety of Financial Industries including a burgeoning Insurance Industry. The Insurance District was defined roughly as the area between Maiden Lane and the Brooklyn Bridge Approach. At time passed by almost every major Insurance Company had a prescence in the Insurance District. As time passed many the Insurance Companies had move to other ares offering more space. By the 1920's most of the Insurance Companies had moved to other areas of Manhattan,